Convicted killer's final plea for life sentence halted after attorney conflict

Inmate Shawn Rogers delivers the opening statements in the first day of testimony in his murder trial.

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Shawn Rogers sits in court on Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, during the penalty phase of his trial at the Santa Rosa County Courthouse. Rogers was convicted earlier in the week of killing his cellmate.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)Buy Photo

The final hearing to allow convicted killer Shawn Rogers to plead for a life sentence, instead of the death penalty, was continued in court Wednesday after a conflict with his attorney.

In August, a Santa Rosa County jury found Rogers guilty of the 2012 murder of Ricky Dean Martin in the pair's shared cell at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution. Rogers already was serving a life sentence when he killed Martin.

Rogers' final hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, which was his chance to present any further mitigating factors to convince Simon against death, according to Chief Assistant State Attorney Bill Bishop.

“Mr. Rogers objected to any continuance and wanted his lawyer not to provide any further information to the court, but the attorney is duty-bound to do everything he can to assist Mr. Rogers.”

Bill Bishop, Chief Assistant State Attorney

But there was conflict between Rogers and his attorney, Kenneth Brooks, about how to proceed. Rogers represented himself throughout the trial, but now has chosen to allow Brooks, his standby counsel, to step forward as the primary attorney through the penalty phase.

"Mr. Rogers objected to any continuance and wanted his lawyer not to provide any further information to the court, but the attorney is duty-bound to do everything he can to assist Mr. Rogers," Bishop said.

Brooks said Hurricane Irma disrupted some of the defense's witnesses — in particular a mitigation expert — from attending the scheduled hearing. Brooks wanted to continue the hearing to a different date to allow those witnesses to be present, but Rogers wanted to go through with the hearing without those witnesses.

"There was a delay in being able to get everything together, and the court granted the continuance today," Brooks said.

While Simon granted the hearing's delay, no further date has yet been set in the case.